Await the Fairway National Literary Award winners
The Fairway National Literary Award competition, will reach its climax at the Fairway Galle Literary Festival. The award ceremony will take place at the Fairway Pavilion in the Galle Fort on January 26 at 5.30 p m. Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera will be the chief guest.
The Fairway National Literary Award accommodates all three languages of Sri Lanka. The judges have selected a total of 13 novels for the shortlists – five from the Sinhala language category and four each from the English and Tamil language categories. Each shortlisted novelist in each lan- guage category will receive a cash prize of Rs.100,000, while the eventual winner of each language category will receive a cash prize of Rs. 500,000.
The judges for the English language category are; Ranjani Obeyesekere – academic, literary critic and translator in the fields of literature, theatre and performance, ‘Jolly’ Somasundaram – retired civil servant, writer, playwright, and film and literary critic, and Arun Welandawe–Prematilleke – actor, playwright, director and specialist in immersive theatre.
The shortlisted novels for 2017 in the English language category are:
‘Dutugemunu: Prince of Destiny’ by Rukmani Samaranayake, ‘Song of the Sun God’ by Shankari Chandran, ‘Wrath of Kali: The Dark Side of God’ by Mario Perera and ‘The Other One’ by Amanda Jay.
The panel of judges for the Sinhala language category comprises Gamini Viyangoda – writer, translator, social activist and political columnist, Buddhadasa Galappaththi – poet, writer, award winning columnist and stage drama make-up artist, and Prabha Manuratne – academic and literary critic championing feminist theory, Marxism and psychoanalysis.
The novels that have been shortlisted for 2017 are:
‘Handha Paluwa Thani Tharuwa’ by Nishshanka Wijemanna, ‘Yakada Silpara’ by Wimal Udaya Hapugodaarachchi, ‘Garunda Muhurthaya ‘by Keerthi Welisarage, ‘Pandaka Puthra Wasthuwa’ by Anurasiri Hettige and ‘Nikini Kaluwara’ by Deepthi Mangala Rajapaksha.
The Tamil language category’s judging panel comprises V. Maheswaran – academic and award-winning writer, Sumathy Sivamohan – academic, award winning film- maker, writer, performer, playwright and poet, and M. S. M. Anes – academic, writer and translator in the areas of philosophy, culture, music and folklore.
The four shortlisted novels for 2017 are: ‘Thazhumbu’ by M. Balasingham, ‘Kulaimurisal’ by J. Wahabdeen, ‘Ethanam’ by Theniyaan and ‘Neenthik Kadantha Nerupparu’ by N. Yohendranathan.
The Fairway National Literary Awards are presented by Fairway Holdings with the objective of recognising, encouraging and rewarding excellent creative writing in Sri Lanka.